When it rains, it sure does pour. I know I have vaguely referenced a family emergency I dealt with last week, and frankly, I’m have a really difficult time getting through each day. I’m not big on prayer, but if you are, I’d appreciate some strength and peace my way. I could use good vibes, too.
One day, I’ll get around to writing what’s on my mind, but right now, I’m still just too upset. Thank you so much.
Today, I want to talk about my latest read, “My Life in France” by Julia Child. This book has been on my list for quite awhile, and one day when I didn’t have any library reserves to pick up, I just browsed the shelves and saw that it was there!
I wasn’t sure what to expect reading this book… but the truth is, I LOVED IT! Here’s the description from Amazon:
The bestselling story of Julia’s years in France—and the basis for Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams—in her own words.
Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia’s unforgettable story—struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe—unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia’s success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America’s most endearing personalities.
I thought it was so cool that Julia didn’t really find her calling until she was in her mid-to-late thirties. Once she found it, she certainly conquered it! She wrote one of the most popular cookbooks of all time, and was given a TV show before TV was even widespread!
I really loved hearing the stories about her cat, “Minuette” (I believe that’s how she spelled it) – there were pictures of the cat, too. She would get scraps from the butcher to feed it and it would growl at animal bones!
“These were the Top Secret Confidential censored pages: our revolutionary recipes for holiandaise, mayonnaise, and buerre blanc.”
Julia and her co-authors kept their recipes top secret because of all the work, research, and testing that went into them. Even though it was recipes for French cooking, they asked for help in the US to get measurements and consistencies right.
“I apologized to the neighbor, and bought little rubber caps for the legs of our chairs, stools, and tables, plus some real French house slippers so that Paul and I could shuffle about life an old bourgeouis couple.”
I simply loved the way this book was written – definitely recommending it to my foodies!
The next book Blanche’s Book Club is reading is “The Language of Flowers” by Vanessa Diffenbaugh.
I’m off to San Antonio this weekend, and I’m hoping I can catch a bit of a distraction from…well, everything.
Thanks again for respecting my space to vent and write and hopefully find inner-peace.
The Bitter Lemon 